Reflections [Alberto Torrigiotti]

I think that the Putnam paper was probably one of my favorite materials of the course. His Twin Earth thought experiment was very insightful and it turns out that he since revised the experiment to deal with numerous criticisms. He argued in a lecture somewhere and proceeded to show that actually the thought experiment could get rid of Twin Earth entirely and still show that meanings aren't in the head, but that stipulating Twin Earth is just simpler and more elegant. I thought that his thought experiment and subsequent analysis was a particularly ingenuous way to demonstrate that the contents of our brains are not sufficient for determining meanings, and that meanings must also be determined causally by external factors. After all, water (H20) is not water (XYZ) despite there being, to Putnam, no difference in the psychological states of the individuals on Earth and on Twin Earth. There are elements of the example which I believe carry less force than Putnam himself probably believed, but it was still a pleasure to read.